About Port Fairy

 

Today Port Fairy prospers on a combination of fishing and tourism. It still boasts one of Victoria's largest fishing fleets. The seas are known for shark, crayfish and abalone, as well as a wide variety of fish.
The population of Port Fairy is approximately 3,000 but swells in summer to over 12,000 and particularly for The Port Fairy Folk Festival (over 40,000) arguably the best music festival in regional Australia, with many international acts. The Port Fairy Folk Festival is held over the Labor Day long weekend in March. It is advisable to book well in advance.

Port Fairy is situated on Victoria's far west coast, 290 kilometres from Melbourne on the inland route via Colac (3 hours 30 minutes driving time) and considerably longer by the spectacular Great Ocean Road (6 hours 30 minutes driving time).
See How to Get There for more details.

 

History

Port Fairy is a delightful historic port with wide streets lined by 19th century cottages, great Norfolk pines, old stone churches, old hotels and inns. Many fine examples of the state's architecture remain intact, and more than 50 buildings are classified by the National Trust. There are museums, historic walks, pleasant stretches of coastline, a fascinating harbour, charming 19th century cottages and the feel of a bygone age. Everything is within walking distance.
Prior to arrival of Europeans, Port Fairy was inhabited by the Knarn Kolak Aborigines. They lived a simple life and subsisted on fishing.
In the early nineteenth century sealers and whalers operated along the southern coast.  As early as 1810 Captain James Wishart, a sealer, anchored at Port Fairy. The 'harbour' became known as Port Fairy, after Wishart's cutter 'The Fairy'. The sealers moved over to whaling due to the killing off of the seal colonies. Whaling ceased in 1843. The whalers built the distinctive bluestone cottages which are still to be found around town. The town began to grow in the early 1840s. In 1843 a Sydney solicitor James Atkinson purchased 5120 acres for £1 per acre. He converted the sealing community into a modern port by draining the swamps, subdividing and selling/leasing the land and building the harbour on the Moyne River and renamed the town Belfast. It wasn't until 1887 that the town was renamed Port Fairy.